In building construction, the exterior wall often consists of a substrate wall, such as concrete block, which is covered on its exposed face by some type of veneer finish such as stone, brick or siding. This veneer layer provides an enhanced aesthetic appearance and additional structural integrity. It is necessary to connect or "tie" the veneer wall to the substrate wall in order to ensure structural stability and to resist lateral pressure, such as that resulting from wind forces. Also, it is often desirable to maintain a gap between the substrate and veneer wall for ventilation and drainage purposes or to accommodate a layer of insulating material. Veneer anchors spaced along the wall in the vertical and horizontal directions are commonly used to fasten or tie back the veneer to the substrate wall.
Besides being pleasing in appearance, an acceptable exterior wall for a building must also offer protection against water seepage. An effective and common way of preventing leaks is to apply a durable, continuous, waterproof membrane to the outside of the substrate wall, behind the veneer.
However, the anchors used in the construction industry to secure the veneer to the substrate puncture the interstitial waterproof membrane at each anchor point. This penetration of the membrane results in a noncontinuous seal which could result in a leak. Even caulking around the penetration, as is typically done, does not fully solve the leakage problem. Indeed, the most common point of leakage with conventional anchors is at the points of anchor penetration.
A non-penetrating fastener was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,175, issued to Resan and assigned to Carlisle Corporation. This lubricated non-penetrating membrane fastener is designed to be used to secure a waterproof roofing membrane to a roof, but has no application as an anchoring system for a veneer wall.
The present invention addresses these and many other problems associated with currently available veneer anchoring systems.